272 MIMICRY OF SEEDS AND FRUITS. 



hairy coat and other epidermal appendages, and apical, bilateral, 

 unilateral, circumferential, dorsal, or basal winging ; and, lastly, 

 mimicry of animals or parts of j)lants. I shall here speak 

 esj)ecially of this last method, and run over a few of the more 

 notew^orthy instances of its occurrence. 



In Polygalace£e, besides the large genus Pohjgala, with beauti- 

 fully strophiolate and coleopteroid, though small, seeds, I may 

 refer to Bredemeyera, from the reduced strophiole of the seed of which 

 are given off a number of long coarse hairs with a tendency 

 to bilateral disposition. The narrow seed flanked by these curious 

 hairs presents in a remarkable degree the appearance of a dipterous 

 insect." The order Leguminosae contains many species with 

 insect-mimicking seeds and fruits ; of these it will be sufficient to 

 refer to Abrns in-ecatorius, many species of Lupinus which have 

 seeds resembling spiders' bodies, legumes of Medicago, one or two 

 resembling, to a certain extent, the larva- case of the Mantis and 

 others shells, &c., and of Scorpiwus (notably S. venmculatus), 

 shaped liked caterpillars, as well as other Hippocrepidecc. Thus 

 in Cucurbitacete, iJimurphocJilaDujs has curious twig-like seeds, and 

 in Turneracete and Passiflorese they are transversely ridged, so as 

 to resemble to some extent articulated creatures ; in Umbelli- 

 ferae, too, the fruits of 2lafii/daris tomentosa have, unless I am 

 deceived, an insect-mimicking function, and other umbelliferous 

 fruits, with their persistent antenna-like styles, have probably 

 similar functions. Then the characteristic seeds of Sapotaceae 

 resemble to some extent shells, and that of Martynia diandra, 

 a beetle, though the two large hooks undoubtedly act as graspers 

 of a passing animal's hide, and have been actually seen attached 

 to a tiger. What, too, shall we say of the remarkable capsules of 

 Antirrhinum , which look so much like an insect, the ^Dores of 

 dehiscence resembling eyes and the persistent style a head- 

 appendage ? or of the seeds of the Cannaceous Ischnosiphon, with 

 their beautifuly-crenated axil, or of the coleopteroid fruits of many 

 species of Scleria and of Ilutacem / 



There is, how^ever, an Order w^hich is to be regarded as 2)ar 

 excellence containing insect-like seeds — Euphorbiacea:. In this 

 Order the aj)pendage of the seed has an unique name (carunculus), 

 and, since it is an outgrowth from the placenta, an unique history. 

 Many of the genera of this Order are mdeed not carunculate, in 

 which case they may, as in Tragia and Argyrothamnia, resemble 

 spiders. Many of the carunculate seeds are beautifully coleopteroid, 

 the carunculus representing the head, and the raphal line the line 

 between the closed elytra, in addition to which the seed is often 

 spotted or symmetrically striped on a paler ground. It wiU 

 suffice here to mention Ricimis, Jatrupha, Crnton, Bidiospermum^ 

 and Stipellaria, and especially Manihot. In order to show the 

 seminal diversity exhibited by species of this genus, some of the 



* The strophiole of the Violet has, at least partly, an entirely diflferent 

 function from that of insect-mimicry, as might he presumed to be the case, 

 seeing that it not uncommouly separates spontaneously Ironi the ripe seed. 



